Just a Dream
by devilssmile666
Summary: The Grissom’s daughter is about to be married to a fine gentleman who is coming home from the war. However, instead of going to her wedding, she ends up going to his funeral.


**Just a Dream**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the CSI characters. Well, in this story, only Marissa and Corbin are mine.

**Summary:** The Grissom's daughter is about to be married to a fine gentleman who is coming home from the war. However, instead of going to her wedding, she ends up going to his funeral.

**A/N:** The song in this fic is **Just a Dream** by **Carrie Underwood**. I do not own that either. This was not beta-ed, so there may be mistakes. This song holds a deep and special meaning to me, and I hope you like it.

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On her eighteenth birthday, Marissa Grissom was in for a pleasant surprise. She got a call from her boyfriend Corbin – who was recently over in Baghdad – and he proposed to her. Ecstatic, she screamed her answer yes, and he suggested that they have the wedding when he got home from the war, which was in two weeks. She agreed and told him that she'd have her parents help her set it up.

"I don't want a lot of people...just your parents, and my parents and siblings," he told her before she hung up.

"Okay...I love you so much and I can't wait until you get home!" she said, grinning from ear to ear.

She hung up, and saw her parents standing there with a huge smile on their faces. Her father was holding a black velvet box and said, "Corbin wanted me to give you this."

He opened the box and nestled inside was a sparkling diamond engagement ring. She beamed and put it on her finger, admiring how the light danced off of the diamond. She turned to look at her parents and said, "Wait, you knew he was going to propose?"

They nodded and told her that Corbin had informed them a couple days ago. Marissa was as happy as could be for the moment. With her parents and siblings' help, they got the wedding arranged for August 31st.

**CSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSI**

Two weeks later, Marissa was standing outside of the church, extremely nervous. She was dressed in a snow-white dress she had borrowed from her mother with a blue butterfly pendant hanging around her neck. She could not believe that she was getting married today! His box of letters he had written to her from Baghdad were in the front seat of her car, just so she could be reminded of him.

**It was two weeks after the day she turned 18  
All dressed in white, going to the church that night  
She had his box of letters in the passenger seat  
Sixpence in her shoe  
Something borrowed, something blue**

The church doors opened, and what she saw froze her dead in her tracks. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her chest was so constricted, it hurt. She put her veil down so nobody could see her tears. She refused to believe her eyes...she just couldn't! She heard the military band's trumpets sounding in the warm night air, and the white flowers fell out of her hand and landed on the ground. She turned and ran away from the church, where a white casket holding her fiancé lay.

**And when the church doors opened up wide  
She put her veil down trying to hide the tears  
Oh, she just couldn't believe it  
She heard the trumpets from the military band  
And the flowers fell out of her hands**

"Marissa!" she heard her mother shout. "Honey, come back!"

Marissa just ran and ran until she collapsed on the grass. Sobs shook her body into convulsions, and she screamed, "Why'd you leave me Corbin, why'd you go? I was counting on spending my life with you, but now I'll never know!"

Tears ran her make-up, but she did not care. Her chest hurt and even though she saw his body, she did not want to believe he was gone. She heard her mother come up beside her and embrace her tightly.

"Honey, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Why'd he go, Mommy?" Marissa whimpered. "He can't just leave me. Why didn't anybody tell me? When did he di - uh, go?"

"Almost two weeks...he was shot by a sniper two days after proposing to you," Sara told her daughter quietly. "Honey, I know it hurts...but let's go and say goodbye to him properly, okay?"

"I don't feel like me anymore," Marissa whispered. "I feel...detached. Like I'm looking from a distance, or standing in the background or some sick, twisted movie. You know, people told me that he wasn't going to come home...I refused to believe them. Mom, this can't be happening to me...not now! I just want to wake up and find out this is some horrible nightmare."

**Baby, why'd you leave me, why'd you have to go  
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know  
I can't even breathe  
It's like I'm looking from a distance,  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now,  
This can't be happening to me  
This is just a dream**

"Shh, come on baby...let's get back to the church," Sara whispered.

They walked back to the church, where everyone looked at her. She kept her eyes on the floor and sat down on one of the benches. The preacher was in the front of the congregation, and said, "Let us pray. Dear Lord, please lift this young man's soul. Keep him safe up there with you, and help heal the hurt this grieving woman is feeling. Amen. Please rise and sing the song on page 316 in your hymnals."

The congregation all stood up and sang a very sad song. Tears prickled Marissa's eyes as she listened to the lament of the song. She gripped the front of the bench so hard that her knuckles turned white. Her stomach was in knots and she felt sick as reality suddenly slammed into her. She placed a hand on her abdomen where her and Corbin's fetus was growing.

**The preacher man said let us bow our heads and pray  
Lord please lift his soul and heal this hurt  
Then the congregation all stood up  
And sang the saddest song that she ever heard**

They called her up to the alter, where a folded flag was lying. Marissa took the flag and forced a half-smile. She felt as if she were going to barf as she looked into the casket and saw her fiancé's ashen face. He was dressed in his military uniform and was lying peacefully as if in a deep sleep. She hugged the flag tightly to her body, since it was the only thing she had left of him. They thought of everything in her life that could have been: a nice job, a house, beautiful kids, and maybe pets. Now that he was gone, those dreams dissolved into blackness.

After the church service, they went outside to bury him. They wheeled his casket outside and there were seven men with rifles waiting for them. Marissa walked up to the casket and touched it's polished, marble surface. She blinked away the tears and said, "I love you."

They lowered him into the ground, and all seven soldiers fired one round. Then they fired two, totaling fourteen shots. Then the last shot rang, and the tears fell as it felt like a bullet was piercing her heart.

**Then they handed her a folded up flag**

**And she held on to all she had left of him  
Oh, and what could've been  
And then guns rang one last shot  
And it felt like a bullet in her heart**

After the lowered him into the ground and all twenty-one shots were fired, Marissa went home. She was still living at home, but she and Corbin had been looking at townhouses where they could raise a family. When she got home, her parents tried to console her, but she just snapped bitterly at them.

"You didn't even _tell_ me!" she screamed, running to her room as the tears fell. "I went to his funeral, thinking I was going to the happiest event in my life! Instead, I went and buried the love of my life...I hate you! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!"

She slammed the door shut and jumped onto her bed, crying into her pillow. She hugged her knees, and her eyes fell upon a teddy bear Corbin had gotten for her on Valentine's day when she was sixteen. She hugged it and her tears dampened it's soft brown fur.

"Baby, why'd you go?" she whispered painfully. "You left me after I told you I said I'd spend my life with you! It's not fair...I don't feel like me anymore! Pieces of me died along with you and I feel like I'm watching this through a movie. I'm refusing to believe your gone, but everyone's saying you're not coming home now! This just can't be happening to me...nobody thinks it'll happen to them. This has to be a dream...but it can't. If it were a dream, it wouldn't hurt this badly."

**Baby, why'd you leave me, why'd you have to go  
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know  
I can't even breathe  
It's like I'm looking from a distance,  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now  
This can't be happening to me  
This is just a dream**

She sobbed for most of the day alone in her room. At around lunch time the following day, she was still in her room. She had not left fer room, other than to use the bathroom. She had not eaten, had not slept, nor had she bathed in over twenty-four hours. She heard a knock on the door and she gave permission to enter. Her father and mother entered and sat down on her bed. Marissa was playing with the teddy bear, gently stroking its soft fur.

"Why won't it stop hurting?" she whispered, staring into the bear's eyes. "I can't sleep because I see him! He left me...why'd he go? I wanted to spend my life together, but now I'll never get to know if we would've been happy!

"Of course you would've!" exclaimed Sara, running her fingers through her daughter's dark, silky hair. "I've seen the way he looked at you...his eyes lit up and you brought the biggest smile to his face! You would've been the happiest couple alive!"

"I know it hurts, sweetie," said Grissom, "but it will eventually go away. I also know that you feel broken up inside and you feel as though you're not really here."

"Yeah!" she cried. "Everyone is talking about me as if I'm not there. They think I can't hear them...I can and IT HURTS! They say I'm in denial and that I'm saying he'll come home. Of course I know he he's not coming home! I just feel his presence everywhere...it's like he's with me everywhere. I guess I have to face the fact that it _is_ happening to me and it's not a dream. I wish it were...but it's not!"

**Oh, baby, why'd you leave me, why'd you have to go  
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know  
Oh I'll never know  
It's like I'm looking from a distance,  
Standing in the background  
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now  
This can't be happening to me  
This is just a dream  
Oh, this is just a dream  
Just a dream**

The tears fell and Grissom and Sara embraced their daughter. Sara rubbed her back reassuringly and said, "You know you can stay here as long as you like...you're our pride and joy. We also know that you're pregnant...you just stay until you get back on your feet."

"Thanks Mommy," she said, hugging her parents. "You too, Daddy."

"No, get a shower and I'll cooks you some lunch," Sara said, kissing her daughter's forehead.

Marissa stepped into the hot spray and let it wash over her. She hugged herself and said, "I love you Corbin...you'll always be in my heart, forever and ever."

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**A/N 2:** I hope you liked this. This actually happen to my cousin...she was engaged and her fiancé was killed in the war. Nobody told her until she was about to go to her wedding...instead, she had to go to a funeral. Please review, and I'll give you a hug. 


End file.
